On this blog, we muse about the fruit we taste when we learn about family members, both living and dead, through family history writing. Wandering through the "family tree orchard," we conduct interviews, enjoy family reunions, and figure out how to make lemonade (and fruit cake!) from the heritage we share with the fruits and nuts on our family trees.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

My granddaughter nods so hard that her blonde curls bounce
up and down, and we labor up the wooden stairs of the old farmhouse. They’re
still steep, 50 years later—Dad didn’t build the house to modern codes.

She looks past the shabby room and her blue eyes pop wide
open at the view—quaking aspen laughing at the teasing clouds.

Because we were poor growing up, my siblings and I are now
rich.Dad and Mom couldn’t hang on to
their dry farm ground, but taxes were cheap on the house and a few acres of
sage and aspen around it, so they kept it.

It’s a scruffy old farmhouse, and every summer we have to
chase out the mice and order the porta-potties, but it’s our dry, dusty,
playground; our treasure, our legacy for the next generation.

Years ago we roamed the hills, pretending to be everything
from Mormon pioneers to assassins.Adolf
Hitler and Nikita Khrushchev were our usual targets—World War II, the Cold War
and President Kennedy’s death affected our psyches.(If you played the part of Khrushchev, you took
your shoe off and banged it on something!)

This summer’s flashflood in Rexburg, Idaho (20 miles from
our farmhouse) reminds me of a flashflood we had when I was about five.Within an hour, a raging torrent ripped
through the bottom of our dry canyon, tearing out our road—I nearly drowned
trying to swim in a river that appeared out of nowhere.

Pictures of us show the grubbiest, happiest children who
ever walked the earth.

Going back to the farm reminds me of pleasures I haven’t
enjoyed for a long time.Here’s my “2014
Summer Bucket List”—

--Throw rocks into water.

--Throw sticks into water.

--Pile rocks up.

--Pick peas.

--Eat peas.

--Peel the bark from a green willow stick and marvel at the
slick, shiny, pungent interior.

--Peel the bark from a dead stick and feel the smooth
interior.

--Pick huckleberries.

--Eat huckleberries.

--Pick flowers.

--Make dolls with flowers—a hollyhock for a skirt, a
bluebell for a trunk and head.

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About Me

I love to write about all aspects of family, especially the fun I have with my husband of 38 years, our 5 kids and 12 grandchildren, and extended family. I love family history-- the stories, photos and history of those vibrant personalities who went before. Join me and discover the sweet taste of fruit from the family tree!